Climate and resilience

Climate change and growing weather variability is one of the biggest challenges to agriculture globally. It necessitates wide-scale transformation of our food systems. WLE produces evidence, tools and solutions that can help farmers, policy makers, investors and others manage and thrive within this new reality and meet the goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement.

NRM for adaptation and resilience

Innovative natural resource management (NRM) practices can support smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change and weather variability, thus increasing their resilience to related shocks. WLE is piloting a number of promising solutions, including climate-smart solar irrigation, managed recharge of groundwater aquifers and insurance against flood-related crop losses. The program is at the forefront of ensuring new technologies are implemented equitably and in a way that protects and enhances our natural resources.

Private and public sector players met at FAO in Rome to discuss the many facets of solar technology use for irrigation and other uses on small and medium scale farms, including financing, application, and innovations.

Coffee is a major export of Vietnam, but the highlands where about 40% of the coffee is grown, is experiencing water shortages in the dry season. Research has found that yields can be increased while decreasing water consumption, and irrigation practices can be improved.

International Water Management Institute. 2018. Developing pathways to climate resilience through the sustainable management of water, land and ecosystems. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 2p.

CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). 2017. Building resilience through sustainable groundwater use. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). 12p. (WLE Towards Sustainable Intensification: Insights and Solutions Brief 1). doi: 10.5337/2017.208

Disaster risk management and response

Climate change-related disasters such as floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and more erratic, and they have severe and wide-ranging consequences for food security and human lives. WLE and its partners provide precise and timely information on potential or ongoing crises to support decision makers, including farmers, to make informed choices about how to manage such risks.

The Asia Pacific is prone to climatic disasters, with floods and droughts causing loss of life, property and food. Being prepared to meet these disasters would improve people's resilience and livelihoods.

As local disaster management authorities rush to respond to ongoing, severe floods in Northeast India, researchers at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) are providing valuable support in the form of rapid-response maps, based on high-resolution satellite images.

Carbon sequestration

Sequestering carbon in soils could have the potential to mitigate climate change. Techniques such as composting, mulching, zero tillage, agroforestry and other natural solutions are showing good promise for increasing the amount of carbon stored in soils. WLE is developing tools and maps to help determine where and how this potential can be realized.

By Georgina Smith of CIAT. New maps show massive potential to store more carbon in farmland soils through better management practices, contributing to global emission reduction targets. The amount of carbon stored in the top 30 centimeters of the soil could increase an extra 0.9 to 1.85 gigatons each year, say authors of a new study published today in Scientific Reports.

Raman Parmar, 48, a farmer of Thamna village Gujarat’s Anand district had become the country’s first solar power farmer. By connecting a solar powered irrigation pump to an electricity grid, Raman had received the first payment for his ‘solar crop’ in the form of a cheque of Rs 7,500 from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Against a backdrop of worsening vulnerability to climate-related risks in India’s agriculture, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is launching a mobile app, called AgRISE, in support of a new national agricultural insurance scheme.

Across Asia, man-made structures have stood powerless to avert tragedy after tragedy during 2018’s rainy season. Dams are vital for energy needs and economic growth. But they’ve been criticised for posing risks to local communities and the fragile environments in which they are built. WLE and IWMI research proposes several innovative solutions that mitigate the threats of these fragile environments through natural infrastructure.

Climate change has a direct impact on Guatemalan small-scale farmers, leading to loss of crops, increased malnutrition and migration flows. Public institutions are critical to improving climate change adaptation strategies, but an agrarian-systems diagnosis carried out by SIC4Change in the Guatemalan dry corridor found some shortcomings with the approach taken by the rural extension services – and suggested some ways these could be corrected.

Small-scale irrigation has been lauded as key to building climate resilience by changing Zimbabwean governments, yet it has often failed in the past. Now, new and easy-to-use tools and recently introduced opportunities to experiment and solve problems in collaboration with others allow farmers to become more efficient and their farms more profitable.